P2 I am not saying Russians cannot make such radars...I just don't like their greedy behavior and lying habits to bag the deals....When their radar was put on the test for MRCA trials you say that range was not 150 or 160 km as claimed rather it was 130 km or even lesser...though it was not a failure but then why they always come with the things which are not fully prepared and make tall claims to bag the deal?
They did not lie, it is just that the media did not pick up the correct information.
The FGA-29 is a smaller ~680 T/R module array, it is a prototype.
MiG-35 Multipurpose Fighter Bomber - Army.lv
The Active Phased Array (APA) "Zhuk-AE" (FGA-29) radar tracks 30 targets and simultaneously serves 2-6 targets at the range up to 130km. The weight of the radar is 105 kg. The diameter of the antenna is 575mm. It consists of 680 transmit-receive modules (increasing up to 1024 modules is planned). The pulse power is 3.4kW. The power consumption amounts to 5-6kW.
So, what they brought to the trials was the FGA-29, but what they promised was the FGA-35. The FGA-35 is a larger array with twice the T/R modules. Which means the array offered by the Russians was very similar to what is going on the French fighter.
For the FGA-35, the specifications allow it greater range and power and tracking range is supposed to be around 200Km, similar to RBE-2AA claims.
French AESA was not ready but at least they did not make any tall claims like Russians...they were working quietly on it.
Nobody made any false claims. Even the French have made claims.
IAF even without AESA was so impressed with Rafale that now it is a winner of MRCA contest and that time Russian MIG was flying with 650 modules AESA during trials, this shows the quality of the French work....Russians can make quality weapons and MKI, Brahmos, Krivaks are many examples of it but they just cannot deliver on time which escalates price and life span of their products/EW warfare systems are no where near the western products....
None of this is true. It is a false assumption that the Russians are behind simply because 20 years ago their collective union broke up into smaller parts. Delays are part and parcel of every project. Out of all the major ship and submarine building projects to date over the last 70 years in the USN, only the Virginia class submarines have been on time.
There is a false assumption from Russia as compared to what has been happening with other projects we have had with other countries. For one, the Russians are not delivering transport aircraft and such technologically small scale projects, nor are they delivering technology that has been in production since a long time. A lot of the high end stuff we are buying from Russia were developed with the Indian armed forces in mind. This includes weapons and the platforms. Delays are inevitable if R&D is also included and this is no different from American projects, let alone French or Israeli.
The Americans too have their own share of major delays starting with the F-35 - 7 years. F-22 modernization is delayed by many years now - 3 years. So, is their Zumwault destroyer and their new carrier is also delayed. The carrier program may be delayed by a lot of years due to a new testing schedule. The delay could be as much as 7 years. Their ABM projects are also delayed by many years.
Russian delays with Gorky was management issue not technological. It is obvious that if you were also involved in the F-35 program then even you would be cribbing about how the Americans delay their projects too.
If you are talking about EW, then the last time the Russians were involved in a tender against the French was in the Malaysian tender to configure the Su-30MKM. The Malaysians chose Russian EW kits over French. In the upcoming MKI upgrade, we may see entirely new Russian EW configurations based on the SAP-14 and SAP-518 pods. The SAP-14's only equivalent is the ALQ-99E pods on the EA-18G Growler.
